Justin Katz

Concerns About Coaty

By Justin Katz | December 28, 2007 |

I’m as hopeful as anybody that Steven Coaty’s Newport election to the General Assembly is a sign of trends for the elections to come. I’ll admit, broadly, that I’m a little worried that the RIGOP won’t prove up to the task of pulling the state back from the the precipice that has the Democrats bedazzled.…

Narnia Out of Order

By Justin Katz | December 28, 2007 |

Now why would Disney go and make the Narnia movies out of order? I understand why the film makers wouldn’t want to start with The Magician’s Nephew, which is the first book according to the storyline. C.S. Lewis, after all, didn’t write the book until after The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I suppose…

The Old In-and-Out in Rhode Island

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2007 |

Subbing for Dan Yorke on WPRO 630AM, Matt Allen has been talking about Rhode Island’s first place ranking among states for lost population, which Marc investigated this morning. I called in to the radio during my commute to mention my finding back in September (and my related Providence Journal op-ed) that, on top of the…

The Proof Is in the Terrorism

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2007 |

There’s a faith-based assessment, on the Left, that war cannot but breed more terrorists, as Professor Gene Perry expresses here: Liberals whom I know are just as concerned to combat terrorism as is Mr. Rowley. The question is how best to do it. Are frontal assaults with tanks and rockets an effective approach to combating…

A Local “No Child Gets Ahead”?

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2007 |

My first reaction is to applaud efforts to make high school graduation requirements more stringent, but something in the execution always seems to cloud the picture: To ensure that a high school diploma in Rhode Island really means a student is prepared to graduate, education officials are developing tougher graduation requirements that would go into…

Frightening Enough to Induce Vomiting

By Justin Katz | December 26, 2007 |

And I’ll share it with you: [Hillary] might even be shameless enough to put [Bill] on the Supreme Court, where he could ruin the law of the land, as many of his own judicial appointees are already doing in the federal courts. From an equal-opportunity take-down column by Thomas Sowell.

“Take to Give” Has Got to Go

By Justin Katz | December 26, 2007 |

Unless I allow my cynicism free rein, it continues to astound me that Poverty Institute types can look at the evidence and persist in their conclusions. A recent jobs study from the institute raised the following concerns: The gap between the haves and have-nots in Rhode Island has widened in recent years and the bulk…

Consistency of the Mess We’re In

By Justin Katz | December 26, 2007 |

A sure indication that Rhode Islanders are in for a beating? The folks who are in a position to ease the pain of our collapse and recovery have to “talk” about stuff like this: William R. Guglietta, chief legal counsel for the House Democratic majority leader, is tentatively scheduled to be sworn in as chief…

Remembering Their Plight

By Justin Katz | December 26, 2007 |

Jeff Jacoby’s Sunday column in the Boston Globe merits a read by anybody who hasn’t seen it yet: The sparing of these women was very welcome news, of course, and it was not coincidental that each case had triggered an international furor. But for every “Qatif girl” or Nazanin who is saved, there are far…

Be Not Afraid

By Justin Katz | December 24, 2007 |

Accusations have been made — recently and in the past — that I hold the social views that I do out of fear and hate. “Why do you fear sex?” “Why do you hate homosexuals?” “Why are you afraid of progress?” If not for the realization that these are clichés that have more to do…